Sign Post Dedication

Since 1959, the Tachikawa-San Bernardino Sister City Committee (TSBSCC) members have hosted students through mutual exchange in each sister city. During Japanese student delegation visits each year, the groups visit the Los Angeles Sister Cities Sign while touring the city. After several years of passing by this sign, it was decided that San Bernardino needed a sister cities sign of their own.

Spearheaded by Project Manager Michael R. Avila, a TSBSCC signage pole was built on top of a mosaic of the world with red tiles to indicate each of San Bernardino’s sister cities along a brick walkway leading up to San Bernardino City Hall. Each day as hundreds of people go to work, they walk by the Sister Cities Sign and find the cities on the mosaic world beneath their feet. This interactive art piece allows students and passersby to learn more about geography and their sister cities.

To successfully implement the project, TSBSCC’s working group members and Mr. Avila collaborated with Brennan Electric, CTS Contracting, Monumental Bronze and Granite, the Art Department of California State University at San Bernardino, San Bernardino Downtown Business Association, Inc., the Jim and Judy Watson Foundation, former and current members of San Bernardino City Council, Express Printing & Graphics, Building and Safety Department staff, the San Bernardino Clergy Association, and the City of San Bernardino.

Tachikawa-San Bernardino Sister City, Inc. won the Sister Cities International’s 2014 Innovation Award (Arts and Culture) for a city with a population between 100,000 and 500,000. The 2014 Sister Cities International Innovation Award (Arts and Culture) recognized the accomplishments of outstanding community and individual sister city program that promotes peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation.